Using the Right Tools – Which is best PPC or SEO?
Why Most AdWord Campaigns Fail
You didn’t understand your keywords and your search term report
You must understand the difference between exact match, phrase match, broad match and modified broad match keywords. If you don’t know what the distinctions are, you could have built a campaign that reached uninterested people. Even worse, every time an uninterested person clicked and bounced, you paid for it!
Use the Search Term Report function in your Google AdWords account to find out what people are entering into Google to trigger your ad. This will tell you whether you’re using the right words or not.
You don’t understand your customers
Your goal is to sell your products and services, right? This doesn’t mean that your customer shares the same goal. You might expect them to land on the sales page and grab their credit cards, but wait! First, they need more information; they may need to speak to someone, or to read a few reviews. If you are getting traffic from a Google Ad, give people the time and resources to find out a bit more and build some trust before they make a commitment. Make sure there’s visible chat functions, FAQs, reviews and a phone number and you’ll find your conversion rate goes up.
Bigging up features rather than benefits
This is closely related to understanding your customers. You make your products and fine-tune your service and it’s very important to you – the ins and outs of your wares loom large in your mind. However, all your customers are primarily interested in is the end results – the nuts and bolts come later.
If someone is looking for after-sun lotion, you need to tell them how the lavender oil will soothe, heal, calm burnt skin and all that. That’s what they need immediately. You can offer info on the sourcing and science parts later so people can read it if they’re interested.
Think like a customer – they want to know if they can stop looking like a lobster, not how the lavender flowers are harvested under a full moon.
Bringing people straight to your homepage
Yes, your homepage is great, but landing on it means that the person has to schlep around to find the product they were searching for. Take them straight to that product page and they’ll be less likely to get fed up wandering around. They can take in the delights of your homepage in their own time.
You don’t track conversions
If you don’t track conversions, you’ll never know what works and what you’re wasting money on. This is especially important with AdWords as you need that conversion data – otherwise there’s no point having the words!
About the author
PAUL SMITH - For over 20 years I have worked with businesses, enterprises and brands in Australia, NZ, UK and US to drive digital marketing growth using organic and paid traffic strategies. No fluff or BS, just straight-forward return on investment.
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